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City officials says water at Griggs-Walnut Superfund Site is cleaner than a year ago

By Steve Ramirez

sramirez@lcsun-news.com @SteveRamirez6 on Twitter

Posted:
08/22/2013 05:44:53 PM MDT

Click photo to enlarge

Shari V. Hill Sun-News
James Pacheco, operator for Las Cruces Water Utilities, explains how an air stripper decontaminates raw water at 360-gallons per minute at the Griggs and Walnut Ground Water Plume Superfund Site where officials celebrated the site's one-year anniversary with an open house Thursday.

LAS CRUCES >> Maybe a spigot, tap or water fountain might not be a bad idea to install outside of the Superfund water treatment plant off East Griggs Avenue as a show of good faith that the once-contaminated water at that site is now safe for people to drink.

"I'm 100 percent sure there's no more contamination," said Las Cruces Utilities Director Jorge Garcia at an open house Thursday to mark the one-year anniversary of its opening. "Go ahead, have a drink for yourself."

A year after city and county officials cut the ribbon to officially open the facility, it is now purifying an average of almost 500,000 gallons of day of water the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has deemed to contain unacceptable levels of Tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, a nonflammable, liquid solvent widely used in dry cleaning, wood processing, fabric manufacturing, and metal de-greasing.

In September 1996, traces of PCE were found in a massive underground water plume in the neighborhood of East Griggs Avenue and Walnut Street. As a result, city well No. 18 was immediately shut down. In August 2001, city well No. 27 was turned off when EPA and city officials learned contamination from the plume had spread.

The city and county are the joint landowners where the contamination was found and the federal government ordered city and county governments to pay for the costs to clean up the water. The water treatment facility was built for $2.074 million.

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The facility is designed to pull water from the two city wells that were shut down, whose water source is from the contaminated plume. Exposing the water to oxygen removes the PCE and makes it safe for people to drink.

The city and county have split the cost to build, operate and maintain the Superfund water treatment facility. Altogether, it has cost $5.8 million to build and operate the facility during the past year.

"We have to monitor and test all the time," said Garcia, of round-the-clock treatment of the water. "Everything shows it (the PCE level) is dropping."

Lorenzo Martinez, water production supervisor, said the facility has performed well since it opened a year ago.

"The flow varies, but typically the facility is able to treat, and clean, about 350 gallons a minute," Martinez said.

Nick Rios, supervisory control and data acquisition technician at the facility, added, "It's been pretty efficient. For a new facility, if you want to rate its ability, it's probably bene about 90 percent. It's been doing what it's asked to do."

Martinez said there is also regular testing by the New Mexico Environment Department, and monitoring by the EPA, to ensure water quality.

"The water from here goes to the three million gallon reservoir tank, at Griggs and Triviz (Street), mixes with water from other city wells and is drinkable," Martinez said

Gretchen Lewis, a Las Cruces homemaker who lives near the Superfund water treatment facility, said she is satisfied and confident with the water quality at her house.

"I have no reason to doubt whatsoever that the water my family and I use is clean," Lewis said. "There hasn't been even a hint of chronic or extended sickness among my (four) kids, my husband or myself. There's been absolutely nothing I've seen to show discoloration or any impurities in the water.

"Sure, you wonder a little in the back of your mind, but I'm as sure as I can be that my water is safe."

Contaminated water at the Superfund Site will continue to cleaned up for as long as 20 years.

Steve Ramirez can be reached at 575-541-5452

This graphic shows the amount of water purified monthly and daily at the Griggs-Walnut Superfund Water Treatment Facility since it began operations a year ago.